Kiṣir-Aššur’s mašmaš bīt Aššur-phase

Abstract

This chapter investigates the texts written by Kiṣir-Aššur during his mašmaš bīt Aššur-phase, during which he copied the majority of surviving texts that have titles in the colophons (24+). Three groups of tablets are distinguished among these manuscripts. The first and second groups comprise medical and ritual texts respectively, of which a substantial portion are designated as extracts (nisḫu, see below). Furthermore, a third group of texts possibly relates to Kiṣir-Aššur’s affiliation with the Aššur temple, as witnessed by his title. What follows provides an overview of the text groups copied by Kiṣir-Aššur during his mašmaš bīt Aššur-phase, a discussion of his title mašmaš bīt Aššur, and a description of the individual texts in each group. Specific features are also investigated. Kiṣir-Aššur copied and possibly formulated several prescriptions labelled as “tested prescriptions” (bulṭu latku) during this period. These are analysed in relation to the predominantly medical texts, together with at least one possible panacea, i.e., a universal drug. The present chapter also discusses Kiṣir-Aššur’s duties in connection to the Aššur temple. The career phase “exorcist of the Aššur temple” (mašmaš bīt Aššur) is the last identifiable phase to which Kiṣir-Aššur, his brother Šamaš-ibni and their father Nabû-bēssunu progressed. The title mašmaš bīt Aššur could therefore mark the pinnacle of Kiṣir-Aššur’s career (see Maul 2010a: 206–208, 210–11). All of the texts in Table 15, except for PKTA pl. 39–40, are explicitly stated as deriving from his mašmaš bīt Aššur phase. The number of Kiṣir-Aššur’s texts with colophons, especially medical and ritual texts, increases markedly during his mašmaššu-phase and even more so in his mašmaš bīt Aššur-phase. The texts written by Kiṣir-Aššur as mašmaš bīt Aššur attest to a variety of subjects, including: prescriptions against illnesses, a number of more broadly defined rituals against ghosts, witchcraft and evils, three namburbi-rituals, and a group of texts associated with the Aššur temple. Of Kiṣir-Aššur’s eight medical healing texts that he copied as mašmaš bīt Aššur, at least six were copied with a purpose statement that emphasizes their practical dimension.1 It is worth noting that several of his medical texts from this phase concern internal illnesses (see Section 9.1). Among the rituals designed to remove malevolent causes of illness, three were also supplied